Today at the AAHPM Assembly, I had the opportunity to attend a much-needed session on pharmacology for symptom management in pediatric patients. Sponsored by the Pediatric Special Interest Group, this “whirlwind tour” covered pharmacologic approaches to depression, anxiety, delirium and insomnia in children. The three presenters from San Diego Hospice – a palliative care physician, a child psychiatrist and a pharmacist – effectively used video and powerpoint to get a lot of important points across quickly. While a bit more attention could have been paid to time management, this was an important session that could easily have been 2 hours in length, and the presenters definitely conveyed the main points in a clear and easy-to-follow fashion.
In pediatrics, we suffer from a practice gap in that there remains such a dearth in evidence-based research for much of our clinical practice. So we rely on anecdotal evidence, or fly by the seat of our pants. It’s very helpful to have guidance and wisdom from a long-established program who have amassed a significant clinical history with pediatric patients. What was particularly informative was the data table that they put together and freely shared, listing all of their recommended pharmacologic choices for each symptom, along with mechanism of action, dosing guidelines, absorption/metabolism/excretion information, common adverse events, and specific clinical pearls about their use. The table also included an algorithm specifying first and second-line choices for each symptom.
One of the many great things about the pediatric palliative care community is the unselfish sharing that we do – as exemplified by the resources offered at today’s presentation. At a national level, we’re currently working on ways to store and share important and widespread information that would benefit everyone, including clinical pathways/protocols, seminal presentations, program development tools, policies/guidelines, and bibliographies. Stay tuned to the AAHPM SIG webpage for updates as to how this information will be made available!